Digital Bob Archive

JUNE 1918 - Part 3:

Newsboys from the Empire and the Dispatch played a regulation nine-inning baseball game which was won by the Empire team, 7 to 5. Playing for the Empire were Everett Nowell, pitcher and captain; George White, catcher; James Barrager, 1st base; Wayne Summers, 2nd base; John Holmquist, 3rd base; Erick Moe, shortstop; George Oja, left field; Attrea Scatalini, center field; and I. Whyte, right field. On the Dispatch team were Leslie Lerner, pitcher and captain; Howard Case, catcher; Earle Ellingen, 1st base; John Janiksela, 2nd base; Henry Wuotila, 3rd base; Harry Ellingen, shortstop; Philip Burke, left field; James Golding, center field; and S. Kanazawa, right field.

Oretto P. Brown arrived in the middle of June to take charge of the Worthen Lumber Company mill whose principal owner had been accidentally killed earlier in the month. Brown had operated the sawmill at Petersburg for several years for the Pacific Coast & Norway Packing Company, and in 1917 had been superintendent of the cannery at Pillar Bay. It was planned to operate the sawmill for the remainder of the summer if labor could be secured.

The Juneau Home Guards were at last to be issued real guns after drilling for several months with wooden ones. Governor Riggs received word from the War Department Supply Division that 700 rifles and 25 rounds of ammunition for each gun were being shipped to Alaska for use by the various Home Guard units.

As a cost-cutting measure, the Douglas City Council voted to combine the positions of city clerk, magistrate and wharfinger on the Douglas City Dock.

An historic Juneau landmark, China Joe's little house and bakery building on the northwest corner of Third and Main Streets, disappeared during the month. Joe had arrived in Juneau in 1881 and put up the building with some of the first lumber sawed at the Sheep Creek mill. Behind the house was Joe's little garden, shaded the past three years by the adjacent Arctic Brotherhood Hall. The building had become much dilapidated in recent years. Joe died in May and U.S. Commissioner N.L. Burton, administrator of the estate, ordered the building razed.

Juneau had its first espionage case when Dr. Joseph Weyerhorst was arrested and charged under the espionage Act. It was not alleged that he had actually done any spying; instead he was said to have hindered the full operation of the draft law by certifying false medical records of some draftees. The espionage Act was apparently the handiest one to prosecute him under, but after a trial lasting several days a jury acquitted him. He left town soon afterward and settled in the midwest.

Simeon Hellenthal was appointed by Governor Riggs as enemy alien property custodian for this area. Only one case was on the docket, that of Mrs. Mary Bergmann of the Bergmann Hotel, but Hellenthal said nothing would be done with the property until obligations due local banks had been met.